Over 60 acts are to
play at free festival

Dozens of bands will play for free in bars and coffee shops during a day of live music.

The annual Matlock Bath Music Festival on Saturday, July 11, will feature performances by 65 acts, some of whom have played before and other newcomers to the event.

Venues such as Princess Victoria, Riva, Bank Note, The County & Station, The Fishpond, The Midland and Puddin’ On The Ritz will be hosting the bands from 1pm until late.

Fresh from Glastonbury, Wobble and Wheeze will ply their folk skills, there will be blues from Little Dog and Ben Miles, funkier blues from Blackfish, indie from Wirksworth based Frank and old fashioned rock from Soul Fire Saints and Fear Lies.

Rock/pop band Catching Kate, alternative rockers Echoed in Earth, blues combo Oak Jam and Derby-based group Juneau will be among the line-up for this fifth festival.

Matlock Bath Music Festival is the brainchild of Andy and Mike Richardson, both of whom have plenty of experience on stage as half of the metal band 3:Second:Fuse.

Andy also runs Middleton-based record label Medius Music.

Mike said: “We’ve got acts of all genres, all sizes and all experience levels playing .

“The musical talent on display every year is nothing short of astonishing and the variety is equally impressive.”

He continues: “As difficult a task as it can be to organise such a large amount of musicians in such a short space of time, it’s always exciting to pull out the orange buckets and bunting each year.

“Well supported by both the audience and local businesses MBMF is becoming one of the busiest weekends in Matlock Bath every year and enjoys working collaboratively with the pubs, cafes and other businesses in Matlock Bath.

“We’re continuing our close relationship with local businesses with Tucker’s Fish and Chip shop helping us feed our mob of volunteer sound engineers, some equipment supplied by Matlock Music Shop and the Riverside Kiosk supplying the official MBMF burger.”

For more details about this year’s Matlock Bath Music Festival, you can check out the festival’s page on Facebook.